| Within intercultural health care relationships, there is a risk of miscommunication during interactions, which may result in increased stress, frustration, and anxiety for health care providers (e.g., Redmond & Bunyi, 1993). Miscommunication may also result in patients avoiding appointments and not receiving, understanding, or acting upon information provided that could improve health outcomes. Researchers have found that educational interventions related to culture can result in improved health care provider intercultural anxiety (e.g., Stephan & Stephan, 1992) and cultural self-efficacy (e.g., Ulrey & Amason, 2001). However, experiences of nursing students working with Canadian Aboriginal populations have not been examined.;Overall, nursing students reported low cultural self-efficacy and moderate intercultural anxiety working with persons of Aboriginal ancestry. Yet, they also reported moderate effectiveness in intercultural communication and moderate cultural sensitivity. Furthermore, nursing students had very little experience with persons of Aboriginal ancestry within Saskatchewan. One-third of participants reported having no personal relationships with a person of Aboriginal ancestry, 66% had not observed any cultural events, three quarters of the sample did not have clinical experience in an Aboriginal community, and 72% reported that they did not have education related to Aboriginal issues. Those with more experience reported higher cultural self-efficacy and more effective intercultural communication compared to those with less experience. Participants who received the educational intervention reported higher scores on cultural self-efficacy and cultural sensitivity compared to those who did not receive the intervention. Through regression analyses, cultural sensitivity and intercultural communication were identified as unique predictors of cultural self-efficacy. Study implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed.;The focus of this study was to use the Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 1986) as a framework to explore nursing students' experience with cultural self-efficacy, intercultural anxiety, intercultural communication, and cultural sensitivity working with Aboriginal persons with diabetes. An educational intervention, designed to decrease intercultural anxiety and increase cultural self-efficacy, was created. Nursing students were randomly assigned to either receive the educational intervention or continue with studies as usual. All participants completed an online survey assessing demographic information and the above variables. In total, 61 nursing students completed the requirements of the study. |
